Archive | Maps

PRINCETON, N.J., March 31 (UPI) — A U.S. organization called Climate Central says its preliminary figures show average future U.S. March temperatures will be higher because of climate change.

The organization’s scientists say they have just published an interactive map showing what various states might expect during the third month of years to come.

Climate Central said its map uses special high-resolution projections covering the lower 48 states to show where average March temperatures are expected to be above or below freezing each decade this century. The group’s maps also compare projections under a reduced-carbon-pollution scenario versus a high one that extends current trends.

The scientists say their findings show either a high or complete loss of freezing zones by the end of the century in every state analyzed.

“Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota would lose the most total below-freezing area, while seven other states — from Arizona to Wisconsin — are projected to lose all they currently have,” the scientists said in a statement.

“These maps imply future changes the research community is only beginning to appreciate,” said Climate Central scientist Ben Strauss.

Climate Central says it is an organization of scientists and journalists “dedicated to communicating the best and latest climate science.”

EVANSTON, Ill., March 24 (UPI) — U.S. researchers say they have developed a thin, flexible and stretchable electronic device to help locate and treat abnormal heart rhythms.

Scientists from Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and the University of Pennsylvania say they are the first to demonstrate a flexible silicon electronic device used for a medical application. The researchers said their device produces high-density maps of a beating heart’s electrical activity, providing potential means to localize and treat abnormal heart rhythms.

Researchers said the technology holds promise for a new generation of flexible, implantable medical devices, as well as flexible sensors, transmitters and photovoltaic and microfluidic devices.

“The heart is dynamic and not flat, but electronics currently used for monitoring are flat and rigid,” said Northwestern Professor Yonggang Huang, a senior author of the paper. “Our electronics have a wavy mesh design so they can wrap around irregular and curved surfaces, like the beating heart. The device is thin, flexible and stretchable and brings electronic circuits right to the tissue.”

The device is based on flexible electronics developed in 2008 by Huang, Professor John Rogers at the University of Illinois and Associate Professor Brian Litt of the University of Pennsylvania.

The research that included Professor Jianliang Xiao of Northwestern; Dae-Hyeong Kim and Yun-Soung Kim of the University of Illinois; and Jonathan Viventi, Justin Blanco, Nicholas Annetta, Andrew Hicks, Joshua Moss and David Callans of the University of Pennsylvania appears as the cover story in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The hangars, printed in English and Chinese, show a map of the areas likely to be swamped by a major tsunami, including all of Ocean Beach east to 46th Street and the zoo.

Newly updated inundation maps released Thursday by the state cover shorelines in 30 California coastal communities and show every harbor and inlet that would be threatened by a major sea wave, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

Major earthquakes along the Aleutian islands in Alaska could trigger tsunamis as far south as California. The 1964 Alaskan quake, with a magnitude of 9.2, killed 11 people in California when it sent waves 7 to 21 feet high between Crescent City and Monterey, state geologist John Parrish said.

“The danger is always present, and it could be worse,” Parrish told the Chronicle.

The memorandum of understanding signed by the governor and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is aimed at moving renewable energy projects eligible for federal stimulus funding through the approval process.

Schwarzenegger said in a written statement that the MOU was the first such agreement in the nation and will boost California’s plan to provide one-third of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

“We know our future is in clean energy and clean technology, and we are taking action so California will be able to meet its ambitious renewable energy and environmental goals,” Schwarzenegger said.

Specifically, the MOU calls for state and federal officials to work together on a science-based process for reviewing and approving sites for renewable energy projects, including electricity transmission lines. The work will include drawing up detailed maps of wildlife habitat and coordinating with the Department of Defense, which owns large areas of land in the state.

Tel Aviv University Professor Eyal Ben-Dor, said the dipstick can help scientists assess the health of our planet and provide farmers and urban planners with a technology that can detail the changing health of soil, as well as its agricultural potential and other concerns.

Ben-Dor said there’s currently no simple and inexpensive way to test for soil health in the field. Soil maps of individual states are only compiled every 10 or 20 years, and each one costs millions of dollars. One testing process even requires the use of a bulldozer that dredges up large tracts of land to be sampled and analyzed in a laboratory.

Testing can be much simpler with the dipstick, a thin catheter-like device that is inserted into a small hole in the soil to give real-time, immediately accurate and reliable information on pollution and the all-round health of the soil, Ben-Dor said.

The Optical Soil Dipstick, which is expected to cost about $10,000 per unit per application, is currently in the prototype stage. But if a strategic partner is found, Ben-Dor says the new device could be on the market within the year.

The efficacy of the dipstick was recently reported in the Soil Science Society of America Journal.

RESTON, Va., Sept. 23 (UPI) — The U.S. Geological Survey says data from Landsat satellites played a central role in the creation of a new, award-winning type of water use mapping.

Using Landsat imagery supplied by the USGS in combination with ground-based water data, the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the University of Idaho developed a novel method to create water-use maps that are accurate to the scale of individual fields, USGS officials said.

“The USGS Landsat archive, dating back to1972, has proven to be a versatile source of consistent data about land surface conditions,” said Bryant Cramer, USGS associate director for geography. “This advance by the Idaho water monitoring team is both brilliant and practical. Looking forward, it’s indicative of what researchers in many countries can accomplish with the data.”

As agricultural irrigation needs and swelling city populations amplify demand for scarce water supplies, water management strategy has been forced to shift from increasing water supply to more effectively managing water use at sustainable levels, the USGS said, noting the Landsat-based method can be as much as 80 percent more accurate than traditional measurement methods.

“The USGS policy of releasing the full Landsat archive over the Internet at no cost opens the door to a much larger pool of researchers worldwide,” Cramer said. “More researchers will lead to even more data applications that tackle major environmental issues.”

SEATTLE, Sept. 18 (UPI) — A Seattle-based restaurant chain said billboards for the eateries from around 1954 have been found anchored to the bottom of Puget Sound.

Officials with Ivar’s said three billboards have been recovered from the bottom of the sound since the first was discovered Aug. 21 using permits and location maps believed to be the property of restaurant founder Ivar Haglund,

Haglund was known until his death at the age of 79 more than 24 years ago as Seattle’s greatest self-promoter, The Seattle Times reported Friday.

“Ivar’s Chowder. Worth surfacing for. 75¢ a cup,” one of the billboards reads.

“Diver’s special. Kids 12 & Under Eat Free* with regular entree. Includes Jell-O,” another of the underwater ads says.

Bob Donegan, president of Ivar’s, said the billboards could still turn out to be an elaborate hoax, but he denied the company would be behind it.

“If I was smart enough to come up with this hoax, I’d be doing other stuff,” he said.